<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Tipping Point by starlightwalking</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066003">Tipping Point</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking'>starlightwalking</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alqualondë, Back to Middle-Earth Month, First Kinslaying, Gen, Minor Fingon | Findekáno/Maedhros | Maitimo, Quintuple Drabble</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:02:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The First Kinslaying, from five different perspectives.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Back to Middle-earth Month 2020: Endings and Beginnings</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tipping Point</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piyo13/gifts">Piyo13</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Second-to-last B2MeM20 prompt! And I’ve already got the next one mostly written :) This was for 3/30/20. The official prompt was “...their enemies shall be our enemies, their need shall be our need, and whatsoever evil, or threat, or assault may come upon them we will aid them to the utmost end of our strength.” (Unfinished Tales, Part Three, II, iii, Cirion and Eorl) &amp; from the generator I used the prompts “Nearly all of us at times fall into the trap of looking back on history’s pivotal events as inevitable.” [First Line], a friendship ends [Endings], “Whatever version, he was wrong for the moment but right for the ages.” [Last Line], and Kinslayers [Character Groups].</p>
<p>The First Kinslaying fascinates me, especially when it comes to Galadriel and Fingon, so I wanted to explore that here. piyo13’s <a href="https://arofili.tumblr.com/post/187289172267/prompt-was-something-like-fingon-realizing-for">comic</a> about Fingon at Alqualondë has haunted me for years, and I’m obsessed with <a href="https://arofili.tumblr.com/post/614180833620885504/ok-with-help-from-hhimring-i-remembered-that">the versions</a> where Galadriel fights /against/ the rest of the Noldor. I’m very glad to finally write about this horrific occasion!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nearly everyone at times falls into the trap of looking back on history’s pivotal events as inevitable.</p>
<p>Findekáno is no exception.</p>
<p>In the far distant future, he brushes aside the guilt and shame, justifying what he did: for duty, for vengeance. For love.</p>
<p>There was no other choice for him.</p>
<p>That does not mean it was not a choice.</p>
<p>He chose to rush ahead into the chaos—he chose to chase Maitimo to the ends of Arda—he chose to value his husband’s life over the Telerin elf he killed.</p>
<p>And Eru help him, he would make that choice again.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Later, she was asked if she regretted it.</p>
<p>She held her head high and laughed, long and harsh, and spit back, <em>Of course not.</em></p>
<p>Artanis would never regret coming to the defense of her kin, even if it meant slaughtering kin of another kind.</p>
<p>That day saw the end of many lives—but it also saw the end of a friendship. Artanis slew a nís she once loved, the daughter of Fëanáro’s steward, for that same nís had slaughtered one of Artanis’ Falmarin cousins.</p>
<p>When they were both reborn, Artanis would not be forgiven.</p>
<p>She still did not regret it.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>His father told him to stay back. He’d never seen his father like this, so drunk on rage and bloodlust, and it frightened him.</p>
<p>But Atya was not so far gone that he would allow Tyelpë to rush into battle.</p>
<p><em>Stay back,</em> he’d ordered. <em>Stay safe. Do not sully your hands with blood.</em></p>
<p><em>But Atya,</em> he’d cried, and Uncle Tyelko pressed a dagger into his hands.</p>
<p><em>Only use it if you have to,</em> Tyelko said gravely.</p>
<p>Tyelpë has the knife even now, long after they are all dead.</p>
<p>He has never used it, not even in self-defense. He never will.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>He hadn’t thought dying would hurt so much.</p>
<p>He hadn’t thought much of dying at all. Who among the Amanyar did? Elulindo had not been raised in the Darkness of Endórë. He was a Prince of the Falmari, and had known only the gentle light of the stars amid the faint glow spilling from the Calacirya.</p>
<p>Death was foreign here, in the Blessed Land. Those unfortunate souls who suffered accidents were swiftly reborn, and such incidents forgotten.</p>
<p>Would his death be forgotten, also? Would the treachery of the Noldor be washed away like the sea washes blood from the sand?</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>The sea was angry.</p>
<p>When the patience of a gentle woman runs dry, a storm breaks that cannot be weathered. This storm was brought not by her wild husband, but by Uinen herself: she drowned the swanships, her beloved people’s treasures, in her rage at the murderers who sailed them.</p>
<p>Ulmo would punish her, later. It was wrong to bring more death to the Children after so much blood had been spilled already, he said.</p>
<p>But the Noldor needed to know her pain, her bottomless sorrow.</p>
<p>She was wrong for the moment, perhaps—but Uinen was right for the ages.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading, and please comment if you enjoyed!<br/>You can find me on tumblr <a href="http://arofili.tumblr.com/">@arofili</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>